New 850 owner

[peter9000uk]

Thought I'd better say hello as I've just purchased a 95 855glt 2.5 10v with 109k on the clock.I got it rather cheap from a dealer friend "as is" It needs a few little bits and pieces doing but hopefully nothing major!

Problems so far...........

1. Had alignment done this morning as she wobbled a bit around 60ish. The chap who did it had to move the rack slightly as it was off centre. As a consequence the sterring wheel is now around 45 deg out! As the car has a air bag is there any special watch out fors in removing and realigning the swheel?

2. I have a little exhaust blow which isn't the actual exhaust but appears to originate around the manifold area. Is this a weak spot on these cars and is it easy to get to all the bolts?

3. I do not appear to have any water leaks and running temp is slightly above 3 o/c on the gauge even after sitting on the M25 for an hour but the heater is stone cold! All the pipes appear to be connected so anyone any ideas?

Sorry for such a long first post but this car will be covering a few miles at weekends due to match fishing commitments. My last Volvo was a 740 GLT which was a doddle to work on and is still going strong at 275k with it's new owner!

Thanks in advance
Pete

congrats on the new purchase ;)

why did you need an alignment if you are getting vibration??? surely the wheels needed balancing instead anyway theres no need to remove the steering wheel to realign just get the garage to adjust the wheels after locking the steering wheel in the straight ahead position and adjust the track rods etc to conpensate.

it sound to me that the bloke who did the work didn't 100% know what he was doing, why was the rack off centre??? and how did he know it was off centre??? the 60mph vibration is common on 850's you'll probably still have it after the balancing, check your tyres and rotate them if need be.

[peter9000uk]

I watched him do the alignment and it was miles out so was the wheel balance. You could see the rack was off centre by the marks! The bolts were loose on the mounts too.

[cootuk]

1) Centering the steering wheel should be part of the alignment?
I'd get it done properly by someone who knows what they are doing.

2) The exhaust manifolds are a weak point, especially the flexible lattice connector. If these get holed they can sound really bad. On mine the lattice joint is actually part of the cat - about £600. The manifold itself is about £250.
My exhaust appears to blow a bit, but a mechanic suggested it might be the engine top stabiliser mount that had decayed. This allows the engine to turn slightly when accelerating/decelerating, and this puts pressure of the flange joint below the drop pipe. The gasket in the flange joint then starts to fail. This is a cheap reoair to try first. Visually it's quite easy to see the decayed mount at the top of the engine.

3) Are the pipes into the heater matrix getting warm? Do the fans work? Maybe if the matrix had a water leak then 'someone' may have bypassed it to save a bit of money and offload the car without a pool of water in the footwells.

4) If it has alloys, I'd also retorque then to correct spec as your wheel balance guy may not have done. Out of spec torquing can lead to warped brakes. Very expensive.

[Simon Linton]

If you use the search facility on this forum you can find most of the repairs necessary for your problems including the heater matrix.

Replacing the engine top mount is IMO something better left to a garage with the press-in tools necessary for a clean install, though I'd recommend a polyurethane replacement so you will never need another.

Steering wheel off centre should be fixed free by the alignment people but check that the tracking doesn't get put out in the process.

As other threads show, rear tracking also needs doing and point 4 in the previous post is very important - 110Nm is the correct torque setting.